Dear Fairygodbosses,
On the heels of International Women’s Day — and despite recent data showing that female founders only received 2.2% of venture funding in 2018 — Fairygodboss, led by two female co-founders, is announcing a $10 million Series A investment, co-led by GSV Accelerate and Signal Peak Ventures.
Fairygodboss began as an anonymous job review platform but quickly morphed into the largest social network for career-minded women. With product features such as job listings, career content, employer profiles, a personalized daily feed, and crowdsourced databases of companies’ benefits, this new investment enables Fairygodboss to enhance its product and expand its team to support the rapidly growing FGB Community and corporate customers.
Four years ago, we — Georgene and Romy — founded Fairygodboss after Georgene had what she likes to call a very bad (but ultimately fortuitous!) day at work. Very suddenly, she was fired from her executive role as part of a management shake-up. She found herself jobless … while two months pregnant. As you can imagine, it wasn’t an ideal situation. However, it did inspire the premise of Fairygodboss: that when we come together, we can improve the workplace for all women.
During Georgene’s job search, she wanted to connect with and hear from other women who had gone through something similar. And as she went on interview after interview (while hiding her pregnancy!), she had questions about employers’ parental leave policies, what her work-life balance would be like if she worked there, and whether these employers had women in leadership roles. Was this a place where her career could thrive? She couldn’t find the answers she was looking for easily. Thanks to your contributions and voices, however, some of that hard-to-find intel and connections to other supportive women are now available to millions in the FGB Community.
Furthermore, we’ve seen our user base grow 30 times over the past 2 years; we’ve reached more than 24 million women; and we are partnering with more than 100 corporate employers. Our new Series A investment will allow Fairygodboss to become the one-stop destination for career-minded women. Additionally, we will expand our offerings for corporate customers so that employers are able to attract, recruit and retain the best female talent.
Unlike some other female-focused career startups that charge fee-based memberships or event ticket sales, Fairygodboss is committed to being a free, digital platform for the millions of women who visit the site every month.
From leaving an anonymous employer review to weighing in on the day’s latest discussions, you are what makes us such a strong, supportive community. In honor of this exciting announcement, we want to celebrate you and your achievements! Take a few minutes to brag about something you’re proud of so the FGB Community can talk you up.
Cheers,
Georgene & Romy